Corsair designed the Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow for small motherboards but left enough room to fit fair sized add in cards and coolers. The case is 397 x 260 x 320mm (15.6 x 10 x 12.6") and will hold GPUs up to 290 mm in length and a cooler of up to 120mm as well as a full sized ATX PSU. [H]ard|OCP installed two GTX 280's with no issues and had no problems installing several popular AiO watercoolers either. Even with just air cooling it would seem that Corsair's Direct Airflow Path is much more than just a marketing gimmick and kept the components at reasonable temperatures even after heavy loads. It certainly earned the Gold Award it received and for less than $100 it deserves to be on your short list of tiny cases to consider purchasing.

"Are you in the market of a case for that new Mini-ITX or MicroATX PC build? Corsair today shows off its Carbide Series Air 240 High Airflow MicroATX and Mini-ITX PC Case. It's big, it's black, and it will remind you the the Borg. OK, maybe it is not that big, but big enough to allow mATX fans plenty of room for cooling and hot dual GPUs."

Last April Sebastian reviewed Corsair's H105 AiO watercooler granting it a Gold Award for its performance and the ease of installation. It has been almost a year and during that year a lot of new AiO watercoolers have arrived on the market so it is worth popping by [H]ard|OCP to see how this cooler stacks up against the new competition. It is still selling for around $110 and remains at the top of the charts for its cooling ability, unfortunately it also remains near the top of the dBA lists as well for those of you wanting a quiet system. The overall performance of the cooler, especially on overclocked processors helps it retain its Gold standing but keep an eye out for the new Corsair H110i GT AiO which you should be hearing about soon!

"For those of you wanting a double fan radiator for your CPU cooling needs, Corsair has its Hydro Series H105 240mm Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler. This new H105 cooler does not sit at the top of the Corsair Hydro Series, and therefore might save you a couple dollars, but we really want to know, how well does it cool you CPU?"

Introduction and Features

Our first Corsair power supply up for review in 2015 is the CS Series Modular 850W PSU; the CS850M. Corsair's CS Series Modular PSUs are designed for basic desktop use and light to moderate gaming where low energy use, low noise, simple installation, and good value are important. The Modular CS Series now includes five models; the CS450M, CS550M, CS650M, CS750M, and the new CS850M. All of the power supplies in the CS Series feature modular cables, high efficiency (80 Plus Gold certified) and quiet operation. In addition, Corsair continues to offer a full line of high quality power supplies, memory components, cases, cooling components, SSDs and accessories for the PC market.

Here is what Corsair has to say about their CS Series Modular PSUs: “The CS-M Series is designed for basic and midrange PCs, but offers features and performance traditionally reserved for higher-end models. 80 Plus Gold efficiency and a thermally controlled fan ensure quiet operation and lower energy use, and the modular, detachable cable set makes installations and upgrades faster and better looking.”

“80 Plus Gold efficiency reduces operating cost and excess heat. Since it generates less heat, the fan doesn’t need to work as hard, and you’ll enjoy near silent operation. The flat black modular cables with clearly-marked connectors make installation fast and straightforward, with good-looking results.”

In the automotive world "GT" stands for Gran Turismo (or Grand Tourer), though it often connotes that a model will have more power and speed. Thus, in the parlance of PC components it makes sense that this would represent the fast version of a part - or in this case, a cooler version.

The Corsair H100i GTX

We haven’t reviewing one of the new "GT" all-in-one liquid cooler revisions from Corsair just yet (stay tuned, we will soon!) but we reported on the new H110i GT cooler during CES 2015, which is a large 280mm design. The two new coolers being announced will be the smaller 240mm and 120mm entries in the Hydro series of AIO coolers, and they presumably replace the venerable “i” versions of the well-known H100 and H80 liquid coolers in the lineup.

The Corsair H80i GT

Extending the same new colorful (and customizable) design options from the previously mentioned H110i cooler, the new H100i GTX and H80i GT share these features:

Improved coldplate and pump design

Dual SP120L PWM static pressure fans

Modular, tool-free mounting bracket for faster installation

Built-in Corsair Link support for configuring fan and pump speeds

Use Corsair Link to customize the RGB LED lighting and monitor multiple system temps

There are a couple of important distinctions separating these new models (other than the obvious size difference). With the H80i GT this is the radiator thickness, which is a whopping 49mm thick, making its potential for heavy-duty cooling in smaller spaces a very interesting prospect. The H100i GTX on the other hand offers user-replaceable pump and radiator caps.

The H80i GT's 49mm thick radiator

The MSRP for the H100i GTX will be $119.99, with the H80i GT priced at $99.99. These will be available from the usual retail locations beginning this month.

Introduction and Features

Introduction

Corsair’s new Carbide Series 330R Titanium Edition case is an update to their popular 330R quiet mid-tower enclosure. The new 330R Titanium Edition features both cosmetic and functional changes with the addition of a Titanium-look brushed aluminum front panel and three-speed fan control switch. In addition, the 330R incorporates excellent sound absorption material for quiet operation, numerous cooling options, and support for multiple, extended length VGA cards. The 330R enclosure features a full length, hinged front door and comes with one 140mm intake fan in the front and one 120mm exhaust fan on the back with five optional fan mounting locations along with support for liquid cooling radiators. There are currently 18 different models in the Carbide Series ranging from $49.99 up to $149.99 USD.

Foundation for a quiet PC

Here is what Corsair has to say about their Carbide Series 330R Titanium Edition enclosure: “The Carbide Series 330R Titanium Edition starts with the award-winning original 330R, and adds a brushed aluminum front panel with a three-speed fan controller. It’s designed for systems that will go into media rooms, bedrooms, dorm rooms, or any place where both silence and performance are essential. Sound damped doors and panels and clever intake fan design are combined with generous expansion room and builder-friendly features to allow you to build a silent PC that can pack a lot of power for gaming and high definition media streaming.”

With the release of the X99 chipset came the introduction of DDR4, which is not seeing the same uptake as DDR3 did at launch, though it is still selling well. Part of this may be the pricing, DDR3 was expensive when it first launched but even stalwart early adopters may balk at the $340 asking price for the Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 2800MHz. The other main reason for the mild reception is the minimal performance gains which DDR4 offers, you can see a slight difference in synthetic benchmarks but when it comes to gameplay the performance increase is minuscule for the price you pay. If you do have an X99 board then this kit is a good choice for you, not only can you often find similar kits on sale for significantly less that $300, Overclockers Club overclocked these DIMMs to 3200MHz at timings of 16-16-16-30. Check out their review here.

"Packed full of promise, the latest modules in the Vengeance series of Corsair's DDR4 memory lineup deliver excellent performance when tweaked to get the tightest timings. Out of the box they come with 16-18-18-36 primary timings using just 1.2v to run the modules. By tweaking the applied voltage a little bit you can get the timings much tighter at the rated speed and even when running at my max overclock of 3200MHz. At this speed I was able to run the timings at 15-15-15-28 2T using over 1.4v applied to the modules."

Corsair has announced their newest Hydro Series all-in-one (AIO) liquid CPU cooler, the H110i GT. This new model has a 140x322 mm radiator and dual 140mm SP140L fans.

Corsair points out the "striking new look with logo inserts on the block and radiator" which add style, but more importantly part of the design changes with the H110i include a new cooling block to make potential performance gains over existing designs an interesting possibility. Certainly the larger radiator surface area and 140mm fans suggest lower noise.

Corsair Link support is also provided to allow "monitoring and customization of built-in logo lighting, fan speed, pump speed".

Specifications:

140mm x 322mm x 27mm aluminum radiator

Two SP140L 140mm high static pressure fans

Corsair Link support for customization and monitoring

Sleeved wide diameter, low evaporation rubber tubing

Support for Intel LGA 115x, 1366, 2011 and AMD AM2, AM3, FM1, FM2

5-year limited warranty

MSRP: $129.99

The H100i GT Liquid CPU Cooler will carry a $129.99 MSRP and availablity is set for a February release.